Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-15
REFRESHING NIHILIsM IN RUSSIA.
The Russian Minister of the Interior
Il IL -

The russian Minister OF the Interior
has issued the following order:
a The gymnssia, high schools. and universities
will heuceforth refuse to receive as pupils or
students the children of domestic servants,
peasants : adesmen, petty shopkeepers farm
ers, and others of like condition, whose pro-
geny should not be raised from the circle to
which they belong, and be thereby led, as long
experience has shown, to despise their parents,
to become disconnected with their lot, and irri-
tated against the inevitable INEQUALITIES of the
existing social positions.
1t is amazing that in this day of the
worlds advance such an edict can be pos
sible in nation claiming to be potent
factor in progressive civilization. The de-
cree is aimed against Nihilism, in the
hope to check the growth of that political
and violent sect by cutting off from the
means of education the classes it is sup
posed furnish the larger number of recruits
to the revolutionary party. But the edict
goes beyond that, and amounts, as the
Christian Union well SAYS, to virtual
confession that the present political regime
is incompatible with popular education,
and that the latter must therefore be sac
rifced." While all other civilized nations,
therefore, are doing their utmost to popu-
larize knowledge, and advance social con-
ditions by educating the masses Russia
proposes to look backward to that period
when favored classes alone enioyed the
benefits of learning. Yet the peasants,
tradesmen, farmers and shop-keepers of
Russia carry the great burden of taxation
out of which the gymnasia, high schools
and universities are supported. 1t is true
that the Minister in the same paper con-
tanning the edict quoted promises that
gradually trade and technical schools
shall be established for the children of the
classes Disseminated against, but Imperial
promises are brittle, and the .vagueness
which envelopes this one gives no comfort
to the expectation the promise may raise.
Viewed from this distance, and in the
light given us upon the political and So
cial questions of Russia, it would seem
that the edict will defeat itself. 1t will
make the requirement of knowledge
among the poorer classes luxury, the
more to be secretly sought and enjoyed be-
cause prohibited. Nihilism will appeal
anew TO the people with this edict as fresh
evidence of the cruelty and harshness of
a tyrannous Government, and as a result
the ranks of the Revolutionists will be
again recruited and their determination
intensified. Such would certainly be the
effect of any similar governmental order
in any English-speaking nation. If the
Government can successfully bar the
avenues of learning against the poorer
classes, it will make sharper still the line
and higher the barrier between the upper
and lower orders. The Church has not
bridged this barrier, which Nihilism
spans; indeed, with all the potency of the
religious element in the Russian character,
and which is greater than in the people of
almost any other nation, the aristocracy
has drifted from it, and become careless
concerning even forms and rites. The re-
ilgious sentiment, however, has been the
most powerful influence in the nation to
keep the lower orders loyal to the Govern
ment. While the aristocracy has doubted.
and boldly shaken itself free from Church
control, 1t has never lost its power over the
peasantry, for religion in Russia is ma
tional institution" says Mr.. Heard in his
recent admirable treatise. But the new
edict will operate very forcibly to shake
the faith and the superstition Of the masses
in the head of the nation and the Church.
The Russian underling has always cher
ished the hope of better condition for his
children, and the systems of popular edu-
cation were his chief encouragement.
When, therefore, he finds these avenues
barred against him, we must EXPECT
to see him break away from the old
traditions and institutions and take up
with some of the scores of sects that exist
in Russia, and many of which are at the
bottom hostile toexisting political systems
The antagonism between the higher and
the lower clergy viii be intensified and
unrest be increased. Nihilism is the one
and only influence that has bridged these
divisions; that has spanned the immense
distance between classes, and enrolled in
Its ranks noblemen and peasants, students
and farmers, princes and tradesmen, and
has united in common purpose those who
on no other platform, under existing cir
cumstances, can possibly meet It is the
one and only influence in Russia that has
ignored religious sects. clerical distinc-
tions, unbelief and faith alike, and taught
that the first duty of the patriotic Russian
is to the ideal State
1t must not be lost sight of that while
We abhor the methods employed by Mill
ism, and condemn the radlcalism that con-
yerts the Nihilist into bloody avenger,
an assassin and dynamite fend the main
principles which underlie all his activity
very closely resemble those which consti
tute the framework and keel of our own
ship of State. THUS, the Nihilistic sect
demand that irresponsible personal gov
eminent shall yield, at least in part, to
representative system; they demand that
the tyranny Of the higher ecclesiastic over
the lower priests and the people shall
cease, and that the State Church shall
recognize all men as worthy of participa-
ton in the national religious faith upon
common level-in fact they really demand
the separation of Church and State. Mill
ism demands of Russia the grant of constitu-
lion to the people guaranteeing freedom of
thought, press and education, and the
punishment of official corruption and
political immortality. 1t demands rep
PaSppt accar,blr- Oh H. IL